MUCH, MUCH more excited about this pick than the first one! I am a '74 nut and imo this is one of the finest shows of the year and one of the very best 3-setters they ever performed. The currently circulating copies of this show sound decent but have numerous mixing and pitch problems as well as sonic anomalies. I am frothing at the mouth dreaming of how much better this is going to sound!

Better yet, the bonus material comes from the underrated 7/29 Capital Centre show...finally I will get to hear one of my favorite Weather Report Suites in vault remastered quality!!

I'm interested why they've selected two shows with great CM SBDs. Between age and too many concerts close to the speakers, I'm far from an audiophile. But for those with better ears, will the remastered HDCD sound ~$30 better than the lossless CM SBD? Not trying to be argumentative...just curious.

Personally I feel the sound of 7/31/74 is somewhat compromised...for one thing, there are some pitch problems from Half-Step thru Jack Straw, as well as some tape warble and mixing issues (Garcia is mixed too low imo). I for one welcome a vault remaster and I think this show is an excellent candidate!

It pretty much boils down to the original digital file or analog tape that was dragged across the tape head on any given evening. Unfortunately, many CM remasters are minimally a 2nd or 3rd generation transfer.

Depending on the transfer methodology of the original tape and the "mastering" that follows, (chnl levels, eq, noise reduction, phase, pitch, etc) all determine the final production product.

A competent music playback system will answer all of your musical considerations.

Thanks, DS, WD, & CC. The variability in the quality and number of generations in the SBD "master" makes sense. Though 10/31/71 is an example where I prefer the mix (especially Keith's contribution) on SHN 79011 (first set) compared to DP Vol 2 (second set). I like WD's idea of a release series of epic shows with less-than-stellar quality SBDs available. As great as the quality of SHN 266 generally is (05/08/77), I'd pay for a CD that discovered a SBD source that doesn't require those jarring AUD patches in Minglewood and LL. And after checking my database, even my tired ears noted that the pitch seemed high on the 07/31/74 flac.

Audience patches in a reference sounding soundboard is analogous with a fine dining experience, a perfect meal except for some foreign matter in one single bite which you immediately and discretely expel into your napkin.